The public preview version of Windows 8.1 has not only added many things, it has also removed a number of features. One of the more immediately notable omissions is the Messaging app.
And now it seems that the test version has also removed a feature that first became part of the operating system with Windows Vista in 2007 — the Windows Experience Index.
According to a recent report, the preview version of Windows 8.1 has put an end to this feature that was developed by Microsoft to give PC owners an easy way to determine the overall hardware capabilities and performance of their computers.
Redmond noted, at the time of the introduction of this feature six years ago, that this would serve as a quick and easy method to find out if a particular software application would be able to run on a PC.
In practice, however, the Windows Experience Index was rarely used by software makers — instead almost all of them continued to use the typical hardware requirement labels to give consumers information on their products.
Maybe if this feature was more streamlined, it would have had seen increased real life usage.
Nevertheless, it seems that this is the end of the line for the Windows Experience Index. It was, as a matter of pure fact, not part of Windows RT. Windows 8, however, still had this feature when it was released in October last year.
Now it appears that this feature is removed entirely in the public preview, with no confirmation yet on whether it will make it in the final cut of Windows 8.1 when it is released later this year.
